Venetica - v 1.02 Patch Released

[magerette]

Gamebanshee posts the news that Deck 13 and publisher DTP have released a patch for their action rpg Venetica, and has provided a rough translation from the German of the changelog. You can read the full details here (http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/95969-venetica-v102-patch-released.html). The News4Gamers website (http://www.n4g.com/pc/News-437423.aspx)also states that localized international versions may ship with the patch already included:
Patch 1.02 for the adventure game Venetica has been released and delivers several bug fixes and huge quality improvements. According to PCGH the game has not been released outside Germany yet, but localized versions are supposed to be under construction. Thus it might be possible that international versions of Venetica will already be shipped with the improved graphics.
You can read more information on the patch over at the PC Games Hardware site (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,700694/Venetica-Huge-quality-improvements-with-Patch-102/Download/) referred to above as well.
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=13908)

[RampantCoyote]

When is this game coming to the U.S.? *Mutter, mutter*

EDIT: Checked the link. Thanks RPGWatch!

[PrinceOfDeath]

Nobody knows.
Absoloutely no info.

[Gorath]

Here's the video in decent quality (http://www.gamestar.de/index.cfm?pid=1589&pk=13193). It's official publisher material.
The differences between 1.01 and 1.02 are huge.

[Gorath]

Nobody knows.
Absoloutely no info.

Official word is: Mixed release dates due to different distris for each region. Roughly early next year.

[Anderson]

Cool. I have my eye on this game, and I keep waiting to hear something about the release date.

[KasperFauerby]

One word - WOW!

I played the german demo and was already pretty sure I would want to pick up the US version... now there's no doubt left :)

[PrinceOfDeath]

Official word is: Mixed release dates due to different distris for each region. Roughly early next year.

Thats the Official Word.
Guess you got given that because your kinda part of press.
To be honest I dunno.
Lots of games early next year, will squise in to buy it.
Was hoping for this year.

[Gorath]

They're probably waiting for the XBox port.

[Corwin]

I have enough to keep me busy right now, so early next year is good in my book!! :)

[txa1265]

Hopefully after I have some 'alone time' with Divinity 2 ;)

[Gorath]

I ran a short test yesterday. The performance gain on my PC (X2 @2300 MHz, 2GB, GeForce 9600) is absolutely massive. It looks better than before and runs twice as fast. And that's without the user mod which improves multicore use. I'm even thinking about activating FSAA or raising the resolution. Deck 13 must have done some intense optimisation work.
The txture flickering is still not completely gone. They reduced it by ca. 80% I would guess, so it's less of a problem now.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

With the new patch ?

I ran the demo on my PC a while ago, and I didn't like the performance at all.

I see that you have a far better graphics card than I do (meanwhile the rest of your configuration seems to be similar) ... this could of course also play a role.

[Gorath]

I think I read somewhere the patch also works on the demo.

[Thaurin]

Downloading the demo now. I wonder if it will run acceptably on my aging PC with this new patch. Early 2010 you say? Damn, Mass Effect 2 comes out around that time. Too many games. :)

It's an Xbox game for me, I'm fairly certain, though.

[Thaurin]

I think I read somewhere the patch also works on the demo.

I just ran the patch with the German demo installed. It says it can't find an installation. :(

On the other hand, the demo says it's version 1.0.2 from September 2009. Seems to be the latest version already?

[Gorath]

The patch displays a date from mid November.

I suppose an updated English demo will come sooner or later.

What are your system specs? My PC was stretched to the limit before the patch. Now it's okay.

[Thaurin]

My PC is still horrible and so is performance with frequent waiting times after loading and choppy performance. It is still playable on medium, though. I haven't tried low settings. Maybe that will make it smooth. Inside sections are smooth. If the patch really does improve things that much, this machine may be able to pull through on this one!

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
2GB RAM
Radeon HD 4650

I guess the video card sort of makes up for something, although it's not a high-end card.

I'm surprised that I can understand 70% of the German. :) I guess I'm better than I thought, or maybe they're just using very clear Hochdeutch.

[Gorath]

This is not that much slower than my PC, just single core instead of multicore. Maybe you can squeeze 200 MHz more out of your CPU with some careful overclocking? This could make your PC tolerable for another 6 months. ;)

If ound out the demo is between 1.01 and 1.02. It has some improvements but not the full performance optimisation and not the fix for flickering textures.

Now I'm playing at 1680*1050 at highest details without AA. The one thing I tuned down is the shadow distance. The performance mod offers an option to cut the shadow distance in half, whatever this means.
The performance is okay in Venice, but I expect it to get much worse in the shipyard area. The guy who made the performance mod measure that this map uses more than 512MB video memory. It's impossible a 512 MB video card can handle it without swapping.
Auto-save is disabled because I don't think I need it anymore with the dual-quicksaves (!) since 1.02.

[Thaurin]

I was already fearing that performance would go down to unplayable levels in the city, so it's probably not a good idea to get this for PC. The update may alleviate this, but I don't think it will be able to perform miracles.

[Gorath]

The Arsenal area (shipyard) is a special case because it is on a hill, has multi-story buildings and complicated street architecture, plus there's a lot of action going on.


The German writing and voice acting is indeed crystal clear and of professional (writing) or excellent quality (voice acting). They're using normal Hochdeutsch, but often in a slightly old fashioned form of address when upper class people are involved. That's quite harmless though.

[Thaurin]

Could be fun to get this in German to practice the language a bit. :) I considered it with Drankensang, but never did. It needed a little getting used to, though, not having really seen many movies in German. "Nein! Tu das mir nicht an! Neeeein!" Sorry, sounds a bit weird to my ears, emotion in German. :P But then again, Dutch movies are slightly weird to me at this point, too.

Is this game available for digital download at a good price? I only saw physical disc available from the site. That's a no go for the German version of this game for me.

By the way, looking at the minimum requirements for the game, I should meet that:

* Pentium® 4 CPU 2.4 GHz oder vergleichbare CPU
* 1024 MB RAM für Windows®XP, 1536 MB für Vista, 2048 MB für Vista 64
* NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT mit 256 MB RAM oder vergleichbar

But then, since when can we trust minimum requirements?

[Gorath]

The retail version was Amazon.de's daily deal yesterday. Price: 24 EUR. The RRP should be lowered after Christmas.

[Thaurin]

Back at 39,95 now. Guess I'll wait.